Brains, Minds & Models

For academic year 2012-13, we will have a series of symposia designed to highlight current excitement about theoretical issues in the neural and cognitive sciences. Theorists interested in the brain and mind come from many different cultures - physics, applied mathematics and computer science, engineering, linguistics, philosophy, ... . We hope that these symposia will provide an opportunity to engage with these diverse approaches, getting a sense both for the broad research programs of different communities and for the technical details on which theories rise and fall.

Symposia will begin at 9:15 AM with bagels and coffee, and wrap up by 6:00 PM. Lunch will be served. All lectures will be in the Science Center, Room 4102 at the Graduate Center. Events are open to the scientific community, but we ask that you email its@gc.cuny.edu to register, so that we can provide the right amount of food and coffee (!).

Some funds are available to facilitate the participation of students and postdoctoral fellows from around the New York metropolitan area. Please email its@gc.cuny.edu if you would like to take advantage of this opportunity.

Friday, 15 February 2013Perception, motor control, and learning: Theory and experiment in bird songNeuromechanics of birdsong production: A new sensorimotor model
Daniel Margoliash, The University of Chicago
Gabriel Mindlin, Universidad de Buenos AiresChained melody: Sequence generation in the songbird forebrain and the emergence of higher-order syntactical structure
Dezhe Jin, Pennsylvania State University
Michael Long, New York UniversityHow birds learn their song
Lucca Parra, City College of New York and The Graduate Center
Ofer Tchernikovski, Hunter College and The Graduate Center

Tuesday, 20 September 2011Perception, memory and movementShort-term memory through compressed sensingSurya Ganguli, University of California at San FranciscoA short-term memory circuit, from single neurons to behaviorMark Goldman, University of California at DavisUniversal features of bistable perceptsNava Rubin, New York UniversityOptimal control of movementEmo Todorov, University of Washington